Elizabeth : I will codify that question to my superiors and respond at
such a time as an adequate answer is preparable.
In the example above, Elizabeth is using unnecessarily complicated and confusing words and construction. The implication is that Elizabeth does not wish
to give answer to the question.
2.3.2 Violating the Maxim
Many commentators incorrectly use the term ‘violate’ for all forms of non- observance of the maxims. But in his first published paper on conversational
cooperation 1975: 49, Grice defines ‘violation’ very specifically as the unostentatious non observance of a maxim. If a speaker violates a maxim she
‘will be liable to mislead’ 1975: 49. Bellow is an example of violating a maxim Thomas 1995: 73,
An English athlete, Dianne Modahl, the defending Commonwealth Games 800 metres champion, pulled out of her opening race and returned to
England. Caroline Searle, press officer for the England team, said: ‘She has a family bereavement; her grandmother has died.’
The next day it was announced that Ms Modahl had been sent home following a positive test for drugs.
What Ms Searle had said was true, but the implicature that the reason for
Modahl’s returning home was bereavement was false.
2.3.3 Infringing the Maxim
A speaker who, with no intention of generating an implicature and with no intention of deceiving, fails to observe a maxim is said ‘infringe’ the maxim. In
other words, the non-observance stems from imperfect linguistic performance rather than from any desire on the part of the speakers to generate a conversational
implicature Thomas 1995: 74. Infringing a maxim could occur because the speaker has an imperfect command of the language a young child or a foreign
learner, because the speaker’s performance is impaired in some way nervousness, drunkenness, excitement, because of some cognitive impairment,
or simply because the speaker is constitutionally incapable of speaking clearly, to the point, etc.
In accordance with Thomas, Mooney 2004: 910 points out that “infringing occurs when the speaker does not know the culture or does not master
the language well enough, as when he or she is incapable of speaking clearly, as for example, when drunk”. The following is an example of infringing a maxim
when someone learning English as a second language speaks to native speaker Mooney 2004: 910.
English speaker : Would you like ham or salad on your sandwich?
Non-English speaker : Yes.
The interlocutor has not intentionally generated an impicature, he or she has not understood the utterance. However, the answer might be interpreted as
non-operative. “This is a case of social implication in the absence of implicature Mooney 2004: 910.”
2.3.4 Opting Out the Maxim
